University of Utah server outage: hospital back at full operations
Aug 23, 2023, 9:54 AM
The University of Utah Orthopedic Center front entrance. (Ben B. Braun/Deseret News)
(Ben B. Braun/Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY– The University of Utah hospital’s IT system is back up and running after a server outage blacked out computers yesterday.
KSL.com reported the outage began at around 3:45 pm yesterday. The University of Utah said the server outage was not caused by a cyberattack or any malicious action. The crash reportedly happened when workers were adjusting the humidity level of a server room due to rising outdoor humidity. The increased humidity level caused an automatic shutdown of the server by temperature and humidity controls.
Staff at the U Hospital were not able to access their IT system for hours, and they had to redirect emergency patients to other hospitals and rely on paper records during the outage. However, inpatient care continued as usual.
(2/2) Patient care at all inpatient facilities is functioning normally.
— University of Utah Health (@UofUHealth) August 23, 2023
The University of Utah’s IT Status website said that applications such as Canvas, UMail, the University of Utah Home Page, Voice Systems and more also went down.
“This is something that we plan for and that we practice for,” said University of Utah spokeswoman Suzanne Winchester. “It sounds big and it sounds catastrophic, but I just think it’s important to remember this is the way that we used to work all the time,” Winchester said. The hospital’s staff have prepared for outages like this.
The initial impact of the shutdown was felt across multiple IT systems, including the U of U hospital, the Safe UT app, and even UTA TRAX signs. All these systems are back up and running, with the Safe UT app becoming functional around 8 p.m. last night.
We’re happy to share that the SafeUT apps are up and running again. Thank you for your patience!
— Huntsman Mental Health Institute (@uofu_hmhi) August 23, 2023
Employees at the U’s hospital got a text this morning saying the system is back on. All hospital operations, including emergency care, are back to normal.
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